Silly Market will stay on Main Street

After brief discussions about moving the street fair to the Snyderville Basin organizers of the Park Silly Sunday Market said Thursday that the weekly bazaar will stay on Main Street for the foreseeable future.

"We’ll be back on Main Street," Silly Market co-founder Jewels Harrison said in a telephone interview.

When City Hall officials refused last year to endorse a proposal for a long-term contract for the market to stay on Main Street, Harrison said she entered talks with venues in the Snyderville Basin that could host the event. The alternative locations included The Canyons and Newpark Town Center.

However, Harrison confirmed that City Hall and the Silly Market had reached a tentative agreement.

"We’re just working with them on a contract now," Harrison said. "It’s a three-year contract with two two-year options for renewal." Previously the weekly market has occupied lower Main Street and some side streets in Old Town in the summer and early fall. A study showed the Silly Market has mixed effects on Main Street business. Businesses on the upper stretch of the street have suffered on Sundays as those closer to the Silly Market have fared better.

The market drew about 90,000 people to Old Town last year, Harrison said.